Resources
An operator's reference library. Built from 16 years of running the numbers.
Everything here comes from actually operating a bootstrapped SaaS to $7M ARR and selling it — not from a marketing playbook. The metric guides explain the numbers plainly and tell you what to do when they move the wrong way. The articles take a side. Both are written for founders and operators of $1M–$10M SaaS companies who'd rather have the honest version.
SaaS Metrics
Definitions, formulas, benchmarks, and — more importantly — what to actually do when a metric is trending the wrong way. Six categories, from growth and unit economics to support and engineering.
- Growth · Retention · Unit Economics
- Product Engagement · Customer Support · Engineering
- Plain-English, operator-grounded, benchmark-backed
Articles
Opinionated, story-driven essays on running a bootstrapped SaaS — the contrarian takes, the hard-won lessons, and the operating disciplines that actually moved the needle. The argument the metric pages only hint at.
- Raising from strength · the metrics that don't apply to you
- Cash discipline · support as differentiation
- Written from real numbers, not generic advice
The Bootstrapped Operator
The lived, unglamorous reality of building a bootstrapped SaaS for sixteen years and selling it — paying yourself, hiring without a war chest, surviving the plateau, resilience, and what the long arc teaches that the early years can't.
- What 16 years taught me · slow growth as strategy
- Surviving the plateau · resilience · saying no
- Not the venture playbook — the operator's life
SaaS Calculators
Interactive calculators for the numbers that decide a SaaS business — Rule of 40, LTV:CAC, NRR, runway, burn multiple and more. Each runs in your browser and reads the result the way an operator would, not just the figure.
- Rule of 40 · LTV:CAC · CAC payback · NRR
- Magic number · runway · burn multiple · quick ratio
- No signup, nothing stored — the operator's read built in
The Operating Cadence
How a leadership team actually runs the week — building a scorecard, running a tight weekly meeting, turning numbers into owned action, and making the rhythm stick. The operating system behind the metrics, from sixteen years of running one.
- Building the scorecard · leading vs lagging · running the meeting
- Owned action · signal vs noise · making it stick
- EOS/L10-informed, written from real practice
The Retention Playbook
Tactics and strategy for keeping and growing the customers you've won — onboarding, adoption, health scores, QBRs, renewals, expansion, and the CS function itself. The how-to behind the retention metrics, from sixteen years of running low-churn customer success.
- Onboarding · adoption · health scores · cohorts
- QBRs · renewals · saves · expansion · NRR
- Operator-tested, and mapped to the metrics
The library is the warm-up. The scorecard is the product.
Everything here is the thinking behind Upbeat — a weekly operating cadence and scorecard that puts these numbers in front of your leadership team every Monday, so the lessons stop living in one founder's head.
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